Reach South Academy Trust
Hill View Primary school is part of the Reach South Academy Trust (RSAT). Information about RSAT can be found below.
Letter from Tom Leverage, CEO RSAT
Welcome to Reach South Academy Trust, each of our schools is unique, but we are stronger together as a family. Our mission is to transform the lives of young people by providing them with a high quality inclusive education.
The trust is made up of 16 academies across the South West of England, in Bournemouth, Gloucestershire, Plymouth, Devon and Wiltshire. We serve children aged from age 3 to 19, in ten primary academies; an all-through 4–16 academy; a secondary academy; the University Technical College in Plymouth; and three special academies. This diverse portfolio provides us with a comprehensive understanding of the needs of a wide range of learners.
Our core values are aspiration, resilience, excellence, integrity and service and our aspiration is for every young person to fulfil their potential. Social mobility and social justice are important to us at Reach South. We equip our leaders to make sure their schools are at the centre of their communities, and provide pathways to success for each pupil.
Reach South schools are encouraged to innovate and demonstrate a pioneering spirit. Engaging with high-impact teaching methods, evidence-based interventions, and research-led approaches are all recommended to drive continuous improvement.
Reach South Academy Trust is on a pioneering journey. We want to work in partnership with more schools who share our vision, so that together, we can have a transformative impact on the education of more young people.
Tom Leverage
Chief Executive Officer
Aspiration beyond expectation
Core Values
Inclusivity. Reach South is for all children. We recognise that some children will face greater barriers to their learning and development than others. This may be due to any number of challenges, including cultural, social, domestic, physical or cognitive. We are committed to helping all children, particularly the most vulnerable, to overcome these so that they can grow and thrive to be well rounded, healthy, educated citizens.
Promoting social mobility. This is a fundamental driver for Reach South. Although we recognise that each school’s context and history informs our approach, this is never an excuse for accepting mediocrity or poor performance. An inclusive approach requires an explicit commitment to improving social mobility for all children. To do this, we insist on:
- high standards of educational achievement;
- high standards of social skills and interpersonal skills;
- high standards of communication skills;
- high standards of critical thinking, problem solving and creativity; and
- developing an understanding of our society, economy and environment.
Serving our local communities. Children’s education cannot be isolated from their social context and, in particular, their family and peer environment. To raise a child’s aspirations beyond their expectations, we must also raise the aspiration of their families and the wider community. Community engagement is not an additional activity that successful schools do; it is fundamental to how they work. Beyond that though, we embrace the fact that the school exists to serve its community; it belongs to the community. Each of our academies will ensure that the curriculum reflects the needs and uniqueness of its community.
Believing in the potential of our young people. Aspiration is a precursor to self-improvement; it is not sufficient in itself but limited aspiration will limit achievement. It is our duty to believe in the potential of all of our children and to make that belief infectious. We need the community to believe in their children, and we need the children to believe in themselves. Aspiration itself becomes a driver and a motivator for educational achievement and personal success.
Preparing tomorrow’s adults to contribute to social, economic, environmental and cultural sustainable development. We educate children to improve their own life chances and opportunities, but we also educate them as trusted members of a community and a global society. Through education, we want to make a contribution to securing a society capable of developing, evolving, improving and being sustainable.
Curriculum Principles
High standards of educational achievement. Education is about much more than formal test and examination grades. Assessment and examination is, however, a measure of each individual’s mastery of skill, knowledge, attitudes and readiness to progress to the next stage of learning, work and life. Formal educational achievement provides young people with opportunities and choices. We have a duty to make sure that our young people are as well placed as they can be to access those opportunities and choices.
Broad, rich and experiential curriculum. Our aim is not to provide a narrow education that simply provides examination grades. We want to equip young people to grow as healthy rounded individuals and citizens, who make a full contribution to community and society. Our curriculum is rich and experiential. It promotes autonomous and critical thinking skills, promoting creativity and entrepreneurship as well as social skills and communication skills.
Relevant learning pathways. As our pupils move from primary to secondary school and on to further or higher education, we will ensure that they can access learning pathways that are relevant to their aspirations and developing talents. These pathways need to be relevant to both the individual and the needs of the wider community. Our secondary schools will engage closely with employers and Higher Education institutions to ensure that learning is truly relevant and best prepares young people for the world of work and social engagement.
Research based curriculum. There is now significant international body of research evidence about what is effective in learning and how children’s brains develop. Our views about curriculum and learning will always be rooted in verifiable and independent research evidence.
Teaching young people to be effective learners. So they can engage fully with our curriculum, we are committed to teaching our children and young people how to be active learners; and how to embrace feedback and mistakes as the springboard for further learning and development.
Core Behaviours
Encouraging professional freedom. We expect our school leaders and staff to develop a curriculum that is relevant to local context and is consistent with the values, principles and behaviours of Reach South. We require consistency but not conformity. We encourage professional freedom within boundaries.
Championing young people, not institutions. We will always champion our young people, even if this conflicts with being the champion of our institutions. For example, where the most appropriate learning pathway for a young person is found in another institution, this would mean a loss of funding to the Trust. Under all circumstances, we are absolutely clear that we will always put the interests of the young person first.
Collaboration not competition. As a charitable education trust, we will collaborate and work with other organisations to deliver positive outcomes for children. Reach South already has very close synergies and association with REAch2 and Reach4 Academy trusts. We also seek to collaborate with other organisations, Local Authorities and Government agencies where it brings benefits to our young people.
Integrity and Trust. We behave with the highest integrity at all levels of the organisation. These behaviours are critical to our organisational growth and sustainability.
Developing our people. Integrity without competence would do little to build confidence in our ability to deliver what we promise. We will build and maintain a reputation for expert organisational competence through the development of skills and capacity in our people and our organisation.
To find out more about Reach South Academy Trust governance, the Trust Board, the Members and Trust policies, please click on the link below:
To learn more about Reach Academy Trust click the link below.
